


Masked

by justaCupcake



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, I don't know what to tag u-u', M/M, and Supervillains, especially Supervillains
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-24
Updated: 2014-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-10 04:51:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2011545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justaCupcake/pseuds/justaCupcake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The way things work were simple: if you had powers, you had to be either a hero or a villain. Nothing in between. He didn't like it and tried to remain neutral, but it's something complicated to do when your brother gets involved with some dangerous people and a thief steals a spot in your life.</p>
<p>Superheroes/Supervillains AU, MarAce, rated M just in case</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I'm a Cupcake and this is my first fic in a looooong time, it's also my first in English and my first AU so I'm sorry for any mistakes or problems :v
> 
> I don't know what to say here :v I had this idea some time ago and I started to read a lot of Marvel comics and I love MarAce so why the hell shouldn't I write it, right? This first chapter is more to present the general settings and to see if you people like the idea or not o-o I hope you do, cause I have a lot of ideas for this story. So this will mostly likely be a long story, but I still have no idea of how many chapters o-o
> 
> And now to the chapter /o-o/
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece nor its characters. If I did, I wouldn't be posting this story as a fanfic.

The youngster yawned, lazily looking up to the clouds adorning the summer sky. The summer _morning_ sky. He reminded himself, making a mental note to kill his brother for waking him up before lunch in their first day of summer vacation. He couldn't care less about the rich kids party or rebel rich kids party or weird job or girlfriend or whatever was his excuse – this time – to stay out until way too late to be able to go to the market the next morning. Honestly, if it wasn't for their little brother whining about how hungry he was and how they didn't have any meat, he would just give a big _fuck you_ to his _dear brother_.

But he couldn't say 'no' to his baby brother.

So, there he was, walking down the street, going back to his house from the market. He shifted the bags in his hands, trying to balance the weight in each one of them. They weren't very heavy, despite the way too big amount of meat he had had to buy in order to feed him and his brothers, and he was pretty strong for someone his age, but that didn't mean he couldn't try to make thinks more comfortable to him. At least, it was a nice day for a walk outside. Some people might say it was too hot to go outside a room with air-conditioner, but the teenager never was really bothered by the heat – another excuse for his brother to send him to this little trip, instead of going himself.

The day was also calm. He imagined it was the kind of day that made some of the oldest people in town to remember how it was before. Raftel was said to be the best place to live in Earth, even if it was just a small town at the time, known only by the All Blue Street, paradise for any lover of food. People were happy, there were almost no crimes, death used to be mostly because of old age or sickness, and even the later were rare, because the hospitals were always fast to start any treatment. He snorted at the thought. It was probably just a bunch of bullshit created by nostalgic ageing minds. Whatever, it certainly was a lot better than nowadays with all the-

"Hey, have you heard about last night?"

A voice nearby interrupted his line of thoughts.

"You mean that conflict between Yaksha and the authorities? Is it true that the Revolutionaries were also involved?"

"Yes. People are saying that young lad was there too... what was his name...?"

The teenager decided to shut off the strangers' voices and keep going his way, already knowing what it was about. It was always about the same thing. The thing that made the peaceful Raftel in that big mess that is now called Grand Line: supervillains and superheroes. It can sound ridiculous or out of a comic book or something, but it was the truth. Nobody knew exactly when people started developing powers or how they started to organize themselves between the two sides, but nowadays it was common enough to make the teenager simply never want to listen anything about the matter ever again. Finally arriving at home, he opened his front door. He was just happy that his Gramps wasn't at home and he wouldn't have to go through the old man grumbles of whatever happened last night and how those heroes had to know to clean their own mess. Even if most of the mess had probably been made by the old man himself.

"I'm ba-"

"ACE!"

"-aaaack!"

Before he could finish his sentence or even get inside per say, he was already being tackled and almost sent flying – or at least to the floor, on his butt – by the hyperactive rubber idiot he called brother. He couldn't help but only sigh and smile at his little brother, with his arms and legs wrapped a couple of times around the older body, that was talking non stopping. Oh, and close the door before any outsider could see the limbs wrapped a couple of times part.

"Ne, ne, Ace. How it went? Something interesting happened? Did you go on an adventure? You bought meat, right? I'm hungry! When breakfast'll be ready? Can we eat the meat for breakfast?"

"Hey, Lu. It was normal. No. Less than half an hour is not enough for an adventure. Yes, I bought meat. I know. If you unwrap yourself from me, soon. And, for the last time, no, you can't eat meat for breakfast." Ace answered with a patience that surprisingly enough came with years of practice and that he only had – until a certain point – to his little brother. Well, maybe a little of this 'patience' was also just 'routine', since the younger one acted like that every time someone arrived home while he was awake. Luckily, this also meant Luffy unwrapped from him fast. Although, this probably had more to do with the prospective of getting food faster too.

"Eeeeeeeh, why can't I eat meat?" Luffy pouted, catching Ace's attention back after he put the shopping bags at the kitchen table. The oldest's eyes immediately end on the scar in his left cheek, choosing to ignore the question. There was no point in trying to explain things to Luffy and that scar was something that always bothered him, because he had no idea of how his baby brother got hurt. Luffy having those rubber powers only made everything a lot worse.

Truth be told, the fifteen years old was the mainly reason Ace had to hate the superhero talk. His powers meant he had to choose a side in the constant battle between the good and the evil. According to Gramps, he had to choose the good side and become a hero align with the Marineford – the Grand Line version of the Justice League, or some crap like that. According to Ace, he should just try to keep neutral and hidden and completely out of harms way – the older brother knew in which kind of situation the younger one was and thinking of what could happen with his baby brother if he chose a side was terrifying. His other brother just tried to stay away from this kind of discussions for whatever reason.

Talking about his other brother.

"Where's Sabo?" the sudden question made the young one stop pouting and look to his big brother with big black eyes. Ace chuckled at his antics when the boy tilted his head to the side, thinking way too hard to answer a simple question.

"He's in his room!" Luffy finally answered, feeling proud of himself for remembering, while Ace went to put some of the groceries in the fridge before they forgot to do it and the food started to spoil (because that had already happened, more than one time, before). "After he wake you up, he said he was too tired because of the party or study group or something yesterday and he needed more sleep. So, he went back to bed." The younger teen finished with a huge smile.

Ace stopped what he was doing when he heard the words 'went back to bed'. And because of a party he'd decided to go to alone.

"Oh, really?"

"Yep." The son of a bitch "Neeee, Aceee, I reeeeeeeeally can't get any meat?"

The worst part was that the son of a bitch didn't even have the decency to feel offended when called a son of a bitch.

"Neeeeee, Aaaaaaaaaaceeeeeeeeee."

He needed a way to get revenge on Sabo for making him wake way too early in the morning for a summer vacation day.

"Aaaaceeeeeeee. Are you listening?"

But how?

*chomp*

"Ouch! Wha- Luffy?" he jumped in surprised, looking down to the messy mop of black hair on his shoulder "Did you just _bite_ me?"

"You weren't answering me!" Ace couldn't believe that. He wasn't answering so Luffy just decided he had to bite him?

"What the- ? Are you crazy? What if I had burnt you by accident?" Ace asked, practically pushing his brother away from him.

Yeah, this was another problem about the whole good against evil situation. He had powers of his own too, and powers a lot more powerful and dangerous than those of Luffy. This of course made things extremely more complicated for him – like he needed more complicated stuff in his life – and for a moment, when they'd discovered this, he was sure Gramps was having a heart attack. When it was about himself, Ace honestly couldn't care less if he get hurt or if people talk bad about him, he simply hated the idea of having to choose a side. It was ridiculous and he hated to be forced into doing stuff because other people ordered him to. He was free to do whatever he wanted with his life.

"It's okay! I know Ace'd never hurt me!" Luffy answered, with a huge grin, to his brother's exacerbation like it was nothing. Seriously, sometimes Luffy's inability to realize the severity of the situation still made Ace surprised, and extremely worried his baby brother would get into even more trouble because of that. Again.

Although... At that moment this could be something good. Ace did need something to get revenge at Sabo and he knew their brother could be even softer with Luffy than he was. Now he just needed to decide if he really wanted to use his cute little brother's naivety for the good of his own quest for vengeance or not. A quick look to the clock and Luffy starting to whine again because he wanted to eat meat for breakfast and he was taking too long were enough to make him decide. He probably wouldn't have any real problem living with the guilt anyway.

"I think Sabo has some meat to give you, Lu" this get the attention of the younger brother " Why don't you go try to wake him up and-" Ace didn't even needed to finish the sentence, because Luffy was already going up the stars to their brother's room. "He needs to be happy, so you should also tickle him to make him laugh!" he decided to suggest from the kitchen door, before going back to organizing the rest of the groceries and starting to make breakfast. He was also pretty hungry already, so more reasons to just do it.

He started putting some slices of bread on the toaster, before taking some bacon and eggs from the fridge. Of course Ace still remembered how Sabo, Gramps, Makino, Dadan, Dogra, Magra, Sanji, Nami, Vivi, Usopp, Law, Franky, Brook, basically all his friends, Sanji's dad, the rest of Dadan's family, his Home Economy teacher, some of Gramps co-workers, some of the neighbours, the city fire-fighters, a guy that tried to rob them once and sometimes even Luffy told him to stay away from the stove. They had even put a note on it telling Ace to stay away in case he ever forgot. But the superpowered teenager decided eggs and bacon were simple enough to make without burning them. Or the rest of the kitchen. Or exploding the whole house.

"SABO! WAKE UP! MEAT!"

"L-lu-luffy! W-what are you.. Haha.. Stop it!" luckily, the sounds of shouts and laughing coming from the second floor of their house started before Ace could get a frying pan, his plan have worked just fine. "Imma.. I'm awake... I'M AWAKE!" the oldest of the three brothers smiled to himself, barely holding back his own laughing while imagining exactly what was happening inside one of the bedrooms: Luffy'd got there with all the delicacy of a raging bull, had jumped on top of a sleeping Sabo with all the consideration he never had for others and now was attacking the sin of a bitch with a barrage of tickles and demanding meat at the same time. The last part pretty obvious for the entire neighbourhood.

Oh yeah. He wasn't going to feel any guilt for using his baby brother to get revenge on Sabo at all.

Now, back to eggs and bacon, while Sabo was dealing with a hungry Luffy. It would be worse for everybody if they got back in the kitchen without any food to be offered to the rubber boy. So, first things first, he needed a frying pan. Frying pan positioned on top of the stove, he only needed to turn on the fire and put the eggs and bacon in it, right? That's just what he did. But maybe he should've used a bigger frying pan? Too late for that. He just took a spoon and started to mix the eggs and the bacon and they're not really looking like what they're supposed to look like. Of course, they're not! Ace had completely forgot about how he had to put butter or kitchen oil or something on the frying pan first. Whistling some old sailor song, Ace took the bottle of oil that was nearer and poured it above the contents of the frying pan. He wasn't completely sure of how much of it he should put, so he decided to put a little more just in case.

Suddenly, he started to feel his consciousness drifting away from him.

"ACE IS DOING WHAT?"

Sabo's shout was the last thing he heard before his narcolepsy kicked him and he collapsed.

* * *

When Ace woke up again some time later, the first thing he noticed was that he was covered in fire extinguisher foam. Getting up, he noticed his clothes were all burnt and he definitely needed to buy new ones soon. Looking around, the kitchen was also partly burnt, especially the area around the stove. The fire extinguisher was lying against the opposite wall, near the door. Finally, his brothers and Gramps were sitting on the table eating a breakfast composed of stuff that they could warm up on the microwave or that they could simply eat cold. His culinary experiment was nowhere to be found. Oh, and apparently the old man had arrived home at some moment.

Garp, obviously, was the first one to notice his older grandson had woken up. The man didn't even give time to the boy to completely recover his senses to explain himself before hitting him with one of his infamous Fists of Love. Actually, two, just to be sure.

"Ouch! What was that for, old man?" Ace asked, rubbing the new bumps on his head.

"Ace! How many times we have to tell you to _not_ try to cook anything?" his grandfather asked in a way Ace wasn't going to admit out loud that was intimidating "You'll never be able to be a good hero if you keep destroying your own house like that!"

"I am NOT becoming a hero, Gramps" the teenager felt like a little kid throwing a tantrum, having already had this discussion a thousand times before. But he really couldn't find the will to care. "NO, this does NOT mean I'm going to be a villain!" he added, already knowing what Gramps was going to say next.

"Idiot!" Garp shouted, punching Ace the third time that morning "Listen to me, Ace. In this world if people like you or Luffy don't become heroes, they're villains! And I'm not raising two villains, so be a good example to your brother and become a hero!"

"Eeeh? But I don't want to be a hero!" Luffy pouted from behind his plate of meat – Sabo really couldn't say no to him, could he? – "If I was a hero and I had a lot of meat, I'd have to share it with everybody! And I want all the meat for myself!"

Ace wanted to facepalm after this explanation, completely understanding and for once not yelling at Gramps for punching Luffy. Well, right, a part of him totally agreed with what the rubber brain had said, but still. Meat was not a good reason for him to decide anything. But really that was the way Luffy's mind worked.

"That's it! You three are coming with me to work tonight!" Garp decided, not giving room for arguments.

"WHAT?" the three shouted at the same time. Obviously, it wouldn't stop the boys from complaining.

"Wait, Garp-san! Why I have to go too?" Sabo asked, still holding his spoon halfway through his cereal bowl and his mouth. The guy was seriously only trying to save his own ass?

"Ne, Saaaabooo, I also don't wanna go! Grandpa, why I have to goo?" Luffy practically whimpered, obviously terrified of the idea of spending the whole night with Garp. Okay, Ace could understand this perfectly. He felt the same, just wasn't showing.

"What good would this even do?" he asked, trying to convince Garp it was a bad idea. It wouldn't be the first time he dragged them along and the other times hadn't made any difference in the brothers' opinion. Not that he had any real hope on this plan. Luffy definitively had inherited his stubbornness from the man.

"It will be great for you boys to learn the difference between good and evil" none of them pointed they already knew this difference. Well, Ace and Sabo knew the difference. Luffy's mind and understanding of the world remained a mystery to them. "And I know you three don't have anything else to do tonight!"

"WE DO!" come the collective answer.

"Oh yeah? What?"

Fuck.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent with the three brothers running after anything to do. Ace never hated anything as much as he hated their tradition of not really doing anything during their first day of vacations. The worse part was that all of their friends also knew about this tradition and all made plans to do something that didn't include the brothers. To make matters even worse, Luffy managed to disappear from Garp's radar after a call from Usopp and Sabo managed to make plans with some mysterious lady friend of his (which obviously resulted in a lot of teasing from Ace's part).

By the time afternoon came, Ace was pretty much hopeless. He tried to call everyone he could think of and every one of them were busy with something: Zoro was at some summer training camp; Sanji was helping with the preparations to the new branch of the Baratie; Nami and Nojiko were outside the town on a trip; same to Vivi; and Brook; Law was a sadistic bastard that just laughed of his despair; Usopp, Chopper and Franky were busy hanging out with Luffy already. Ace considered joining them, but the two of them on the same place would be too risky and easy for Gramps to follow. Dadan's place was also a no go, those guys would just hand him over to Garp the moment the man put his feet in there. He even tried that Haruta girl he met once the day of his college entrance exam, but she had some 'family business' to deal with.

Maybe he should just jump out the window and go hang out alone _anywhere_. Yeah, that seemed like a plan.

"Ace, are you ready to go?" unfortunately, the moment he was opening said window was also the moment Garp decided to go get him in his room for them to go. Or rather, the moment Garp went to drag a struggling and foul-mouthed Ace to the car.

The trip to wherever was the place they were going wasn't very long and Garp used it to explain what was this job. Apparently just another one of the Phoenix robberies. Ace obviously had heard about the guy, everybody on the Grand Line – except most definitively Luffy – had heard something about him. The guy was a very infamous thief that liked to send notes to his victims, police and sometimes newspapers warning about what would be stolen, together with the date and time of the robbery. And as chief of police, Garp had to always be there to _try_ to stop it. 'Try' being the key word. Somehow, the Phoenix always manages to successfully steal whatever he's after and escape from the police or any superhero who happens to be at the place. Together with the rumours of him being associated to an old and supposedly retired very infamous supervillain made everything worse for the police's and heroes' pride.

Ace had to admit that he was kind of curious to see the guy. It wouldn't really be the first time of him accompanying Garp on a night of bird hunting, but still. For a grown man with glowing blue wings, the Phoenix was really hard to spot. The teenager had only seen him in newspapers pictures and those were always either too blurry to see anything or he looked more like a bird than a person on them. The kind of stuff Ace had heard the guy usually steals was also very interesting, for the most part, so the opportunity to take a look on them was a plus on most of bird watching nights.

Except for that one.

"A fish?" the teenager asked incredulous after Garp had finished giving the details of what he and his men had to protect. "One of the best thieves in the world decided to waste his night stealing a _fish_? Is the guy addicted to sushi or something like that?"

"Yes, a fish" Garp grunted the answer, evidently not happy about the fact he would spend _his_ night protecting said fish. But the man still laughed at his grandson's remark about the criminal's diet "Bwahahaaha! That would be one expensive sushi! They say it's a very unique species, impossible to breed outside of nature." He explained, not sounding quite sure about this.

"It's still a fish..." the boy insisted. The 'expensive sushi' and 'very unique species' parts did catch his attention and might have made him a little curious about the animal, but he stubbornly didn't admit it. He was going to make sure to take a good look at that fish and, if possible, take a picture to show Luffy and Sabo. Maybe, just a big maybe, this would make them jealous for not coming and they wouldn't abandon him next time. Traitors.

The only big problem was that the owner of the fish wasn't letting anyone see it. They could get into the room the aquarium was. They could pretty much do any kind of mess they wanted in that room. But they couldn't move the curtains blocking their views of the fish. The time Ace and Garp got there, some policemen were trying to convince the owner that they couldn't protect something they couldn't see. And it was true. For all they knew, the aquarium could pretty much be already empty for hours. If it was there at all.

Sighing irritated, Ace didn't stay there to know how the argument would end. It was already pretty obvious the soon-to-be victim was a class A idiot and Gramps and his men would just have to suck it. It wouldn't be the first time, honestly. Most of the Phoenix's targets acted like that to protect their treasures, with the only exception of museums and others governmental institutions. The teenager gave his grandfather some lame excuse of keeping watch outside or whatever, while leaving the room, and proceed to do the exactly opposite and play addicting mobile games on the car.

Ace already knew the procedures in these cases. They would check the security systems, put the men in position inside and outside the house, confirm with snipers and other agents waiting in nearby buildings, try to contact a superhero, blablabla, and stay still watching any bird that could show up. Everything pretty boring in Ace's opinion. Sometimes it wasn't too bad and he had some interesting people to talk to. Like Smoker, aka the only hero who refused to wear tight lycra pants (a big plus in Ace's book). But apparently only the people who didn't know they had to protect a fish were there, so no one slightly interesting to hang out with.

Time passed and Ace grew tired of dumb games and decided to bug Sabo through messages, mostly asking about how his date was going. According to the blond it 'wasn't a date. But Ace didn't give him any mind and kept asking for stuff until he got at least the name of the girl. And, of course, also took the opportunity to keep remembering Sabo it was all his fault for making Ace wake up way too early to buy groceries. It was a lot more entertaining than his cellphone games, but not so much when Sabo decided to simply start to ignore him. After a barrage of messages without any replies, he decided to give up and get out of the car for some fresh air.

Then he felt someone watching him.

The feeling went away as fast as it came, making Ace question if it wasn't only his imagination. There were some policemen nearby, keeping guard around the house. None of them seemed to be giving a damn about Ace, with the exception of some paranoid ones worried about their chief's family safety. Still, Ace knew it wasn't any of them. Looking around, nothing really seemed out of the extraordinary. He decided to check his watch. Five minutes for the time given on Phoenix's warning note.

Ace thought he'd just caught a glimpse of blue on the corner of his eyes.

When the teenager turned around, it wasn't there anymore. He wasn't there anymore.

But... no. It couldn't be, could it?

Ace turned all his attention back to his clock, things suddenly a lot more interesting. If that really _was_ the Phoenix, Ace was more than sure that he wanted to take a good look at his so called wings. Four minutes. He didn't know what it was, but something about the thief was making him excited. Three minutes. It was like a premonition. Ace got a strong feeling something interesting was going to happen. Two minutes. It had been only a fast glimpse, but he felt his fire reacting to it. One minute. Ace looked up to the mansion in front of him.

Exactly sixty seconds later, he could hear the place's alarms and a lot of yelling and shooting coming from inside. The only sound discernible between the others being _'the fish is gone'_. Ace couldn't even start to imagine how the Phoenix managed to enter the building and go through all the security inside in just five minutes, but he did it. And he decided to escape in a very hollywood-esque way by jumping out of the window, right in front of the stunned boy.

He was a man, alright. With a stupid bird mask, amazing abs on display for anyone to see and big fiery blue wings in the place of arms. Ace really had to fight back his instincts in order to not simply go there and touch those wings with his own fire. A bunch of policemen discovering about his own powers and starting rumours that he had anything to do with the thief certainly wasn't something he needed right now. And it wasn't like he'd even have the time to get near the Phoenix, the way he was moving to skilfully dodge everybody that tried to go after him. Plus, some of the most coward men decided to crawl in his direction so they could 'protect the civilians'.

In any other situation, Ace would had laughed extremely hard of the very unmanly sounds they made when the Phoenix went in their direction. Right now, he was more preoccupied with other things, like the Phoenix flying in their direction. Ace didn't need to move out of the way and he wasn't even sure if he needed to. For a second, the man was right in front of him. He felt the fiery wings brushing slightly against his skin, and they weren't hot like his own flames (again not a good idea to let them out). But it wasn't what caught most of his attention. What caught his attention was that the guy was apparently looking direct at him – hard to be sure with that mask – and he was smirking.

The bastard was showing off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it. Hope you enjoyed~


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH! Second chapter is here! 8D I was going to updated this story earlier, but I had college work to do u-u And I have to say, Adobe Illustrator hates me and the feeling is mutual. Also, I don't have an update schedule, it's totally up to how much stuff I have to do to college that week and how much inspired I am to write~
> 
> Now, about the chapter o-o There's not a lot of superhero and supervillain action YET. But there will be. I just need to set some stuff first~ about MarAce action... you'll see :3 Oh, and I... had something else to say here but I forgot what e-e probably nothing important e-e
> 
> Disclaimer: I'm a cupcake! How can a cupcake own a manga like One Piece? Luffy would've eaten me before the story even started!

Ace didn't know why he was doing that. It was the type of thing Luffy would've done, which means it was a stupid and potentially lethal idea. But, well, there he was, running around dark and desert streets, later than he should, alone and after of who could be easily the most dangerous man he ever met. Well, not counting Gramps. And _that guy_. But he really preferred not to think about him right now. His mind was busy enough trying to make sense of why the freaking fuck he was running after the Phoenix.

Well, or why he would be after the Phoenix, since he also had no idea of where the thief was. Or where he was for that matter.

"Damn it" he cursed low, looking around after getting out of yet another alley to an open space. It was some park and he actually knew the place. He and his brothers used to go there a lot when they moved to the city. It was easy to see most of the place from practically any bench – during the day, at least, because now he couldn't see shit – and there weren't many things that he could get into an accident with. The perfect place to take a younger Luffy with way too much energy to spare.

It was, however, the worst place he could possibly be. There were no places the Phoenix could be hiding there. Especially at night with those glowing wings of him. The wings... Ace really hated them right now. Them and his own stupid powers that totally fooled him into believing the blue flames were calling for him, like the man was inviting him to something. And he simply dashed after a supervillain because of this. Ace would never admit out loud, but Sabo was right: he was an impulsive idiot. Fuck, even if he was right and the Phoenix was indeed inviting him, it was a stupid thing to do.

But like hell he would just give up after getting to that point. He'd just get his cell phone to use the lantern and-

Okay... wrong pocket...

Again, he would just get his cell phone-

It wasn't there either...

His jacket's pockets? He wasn't even wearing one.

"You gotta be kidding me!" it was still on the car. He had forgot his damn phone on the damn car. He had to breath, breath and calm down. He couldn't just burst out in flames and cause a fire just to relieve some stress. Well, not at a public space like the one he was at that moment.

Ace wanted to punch something. Until he heard someone chuckling. Then he wanted to punch someone.

The boy turned to the glare at the spot the chuckling came from only to find a light post. After some seconds glaring at the poor and innocent post like all of his problems were its fault, the look on his face turned into one of confusion. He was pretty sure the post couldn't have laugh at him. Or he hoped so, because if it did, it meant there was something very wrong going on with his head. Listening to the chuckling again didn't help to easy Ace's concerns about his own mental health, but did make him risk a look at the top of the post.

Ace's expression went back to a glare at the moment he spot the Phoenix there, looking down to him with an amused smile on his face. Or, at least, a smile Ace presumed was an amused one. It was hard to tell with that dumb mask covering most of the guy's face. Thinking of this, the younger's glare slowly melted into a more curious expression, as he took the time he had to take a better look and examine the thief's appearance.

The first thing that caught his attention – other than the fire wings, but those had been replaced by normal human arms now – was the mask: it definitively was extremely well made to look like a bird's head, and a very bored looking bird. Weird. It was a shade of light blue, like the jacket it was tied to by the hood. The jacket was simple, except from some kind of gold ornaments, same color of the pair of gloves he was wearing, from the top of his head to the bottom of his back that Ace had thought looked like feathers while he was chasing the Phoenix. The pants were simple, darker than the jacket and looked a lot more confortable than anything Ace ever saw a hero wearing – he wondered if the guy just put on the first pair of pants he saw laying around before going out. There was also a sash around the man's waist Ace soon identified as actually being the tips of the jacket – apparently longer than he first thought – tied and hold in place with a golden belt.

Maybe he hadn't notice the true length of the jacket because, even firmly tied to the guy's waist as it look like, it was still unbuttoned all the way down and just enough loose to show everything that had to be shown of the Phoenix's chest. Honestly, in any other situation, it was a really nice view Ace couldn't really complain about, but right now it was way too distracting. That tattoo wasn't helping. Ace knew he'd already seen it somewhere else, and that it had something to do with the rumours about the thief, but he couldn't remember what it was supposed to mean (and he may or may not be using it as an excuse to keep examining those abs).

A small movement from the Phoenix, practically made Ace jump from the surprise. Damn it. How long had he been staring at the guy's body? Definitively not blushing at all, Ace looked back up to the thief's face... or mask. As expect, it was impossible to know what expression the guy was making, but Ace was pretty sure there wasn't a smile there anymore. And his body language was also unreadable. The only thing the teenager knew for sure is that the man was also taking his time to examine him.

And then Ace noticed another huge problem on his idea of following a infamous and dangerous criminal with superpowers: Gramps was the Chief of Police. And more than one criminal tried to use him or one of his brothers to get to Garp. And now Ace was there, at a deserted park, alone, at night, with a supervillain he followed on his own account.

He hoped Sabo never heard about it. He wasn't going to just give up. He was going to fight the guy head on with his own powers if he had to. But still, if Sabo heard about it, he wouldn't let Ace live through it. Luffy also couldn't know, because the younger brother certainly would talk sooner or later. And Ace was being a terrible example for his baby brother; he knew he was being a terrible example. But it wasn't like he had a choice.

He got ready for a fight. Or simply anything the Phoenix could try and throw at him.

Well, almost everything.

He wasn't ready for the Phoenix simply sighing and flying off.

Just like that.

Like Ace wasn't worth fighting against or something.

And now he was really pissed.

"Hey! Where are you going? COME BACK HERE!" Ace screamed to the figure rapidly getting smaller and smaller on the sky, until he couldn't even see a dot where he was. It was frustrating to know the guy probably didn't even hear him. Not that Ace really thought he would come back this easily. That's why he was ready to blindly run in the direction he saw the other disappears.

"ACE!"

* * *

"Hey, Ace! Wake up!" Together with his brother's voice, came his brother's weight right on top of his guts, successfully waking the oldest teen up from his day dreaming state.

It had already passed a week since the fish robbery incident and usually Ace would've already forgot what happened and moved on. He wasn't the type to keep worrying too much about the past. But this time he couldn't take the thief out of his mind. There was just something very wrong about what's happened that night, but he couldn't really point out what. It was not how his flames tried to react of those of the Phoenix, though this was also bothering him. They didn't react like that to any other kind of flame or bird (and he've tried to make them do so during the week, resulting in a very awkward situation at the zoo involving a very angry turkey, a duck and a flamingo). Obviously, there was also the way the Phoenix simply laughed at him and then flew away without saying anything. Ace was still very pissed at him for that.

But back to the present time, he was very pissed at a certain blond some months younger than him currently sitting on his stomach.

"Sabo! What are you doing? Get out!" he ordered the middle brother, trying to push him off of himself. No good, he managed only to get a cry from Luffy after accidentally kicking his game control.

"No." the offending brother deadpanned, not even giving Ace a glance. "I warned you, didn't I, Luffy?"

"Yep" the younger answered smiling, visibly proud of himself for knowing the right answer and using Ace's legs on his lap as support for his arms. Of course he didn't lose the opportunity to kick the rubber brain for taking Sabo's side. "Hey! What was that for?"

"You're not supposed to agree with him!" Ace explained angrily.

"Eeh. But I only said the truth!" Luffy pouted "Ne, Sabo, Ace is being a meanie again!"

"Now, now." Sabo sighed at his brothers antics "You don't want Luffy to start to lie, do you, Ace?" he asked, finally turning to the oldest one, with a mock tone and expression of scolding on his face.

"Just shut up and get off already" he tried pushing the blond again, but the other reacted by making more force against his stomach and the back of the sofa. What even got into him to just sit there like that? Yeah, okay, Ace was occupying most of the sofa by lying there. But it's not like it was the first time. And Sabo was the one who said to prefer the armchair, so why the hell-

"Not until you tell us what's bothering you."

Ace loved his brother, but he was a real son of a bitch sometimes.

"There's nothing bothering me," no way he would admit his stupidity only to receive a scolding from Sabo. One from Garp had been more than enough.

"Liar! Ace have been all distracted and angry and boring after going to Grandpa's work!" it was amazing how Luffy managed to be so sensitive exactly when people didn't want him to.

"Luffy's right, and you don't need to be a genius to notice." Sabo agreed, changing his expression for one of genuine concern afterwards "Have something happened there? Did the Phoenix do something to you? That's why you were riding a flamingo the other day?" while Luffy was sensitive sometimes, Sabo had to be smart all the time, hadn't he?

"EH? You were riding a flamingo, Ace? That sounds awesome! Can I ride one too? But I want it to be a bull or an octopus!"

"Nothing happened" Ace asked, averting his brother's eyes. He knew Sabo could read him better than anyone else, but it didn't mean he had to just admit everything to him. With luck the blond would at least understand that he didn't want to talk about what indeed happened.

"Fine." Sabo said after a moment of silence - if one didn't count Luffy blathering -, surprising Ace. "Then I'm also not getting up." of course it couldn't have been so easy.

Well, Ace did ask nicely.

Slowly, the superpowered teen started to raise his body temperature. Specially the area where his brother was sitting. The blond was distracted, explaining Luffy why they can't get a pet kraken, and the older raven-haired was taking total advantage of this. He had to bit back a laugh when the other teen started to show signs of noticing something was wrong. But just until smoker started to come from his brother's butt and he practically jumped out of the couch. Now, Ace made sure not to hurt his brother, but a little scare never really hurt anyone, right?

"WHAT THE HELL, ACE?" Sabo basically yelled, patting his butt to extinguish any fire that could be there. Obviously, the scene only made the other two brothers have a laughing fit each.

"What's the problem, smoking pants? You're the one who didn't get up when I asked. Right, Luffy?" the fire user somehow managed to say, making the better innocent looking face he could – which, give the situation and the way he was grinning, wasn't very convincing at all. He didn't really get a verbal answer, only a nod from the younger, since this looked like the only thing he was able to do in that situation. Sabo turning around and presenting to them a view of a hole in his pants didn't help any of them.

They both stopped, however, the moment he, muttering something about changing pants, started to walk away. No. Not walking away. _Limping_ away. How the fuck they hadn't noticed it before?

"Eh, Sabo? Are you hurt? Ace! Look what you did to Sabo!" Luffy exclaimed, his voice full of worry and fear. His accusation only half-hearted as his mind seemed to be trying to come with an explanation to how they hadn't noticed it before!

"It wasn't me, Lu" Ace stated, not taking his eyes off Sabo. He'd had sit up the moment he noticed something was wrong. After seeing his brother flinch at the mention of his injury, he was ready to go beat the crap out of anyone who did that. The worst part was that, after Luffy's comment, the blond forced himself to walk normally.

"What are you talking about? I'm fine. See?" Thinking again, Ace wanted to beat the crap out of his brother. The son of a bitch was hiding his injury from them.

"Really? But, Sabo, you're walking all weird..." Luffy insisted, but with a more hopeful tone now that his brother said he was alright.

"Ah..." said brother hesitated for a second, probably totally aware of the older's glare directed at him. He wasn't actually going to lie, was he? "It was just a cramp." He lied. And with a smile on his face.

Ace was going to get up and force Sabo to tell the truth, not really caring of how hypocrite he was being. But at least _he_ hadn't got hurt from his run-in with the Phoenix. And god knows if and what other kind of injury his brother could be also hiding from them. The only reason he hadn't got up to shake the truth out of his brother's mouth yet was a hand grabbing his wrist. Looking back at the owner of said hand also helped to stop Ace on his tracks. Luffy couldn't be really thinking...

"Luffy..." he tried to call the attention of the younger, to take his mind out of that, but was solemnly ignored.

"Really?" both older brothers left a breath neither had noticed they were holding when the rubberboy smiled widely. "That's good! I don't want Sabo to get hurt!" thank goodness, Luffy was naive enough to believe the obvious lie. The worry, however, was still there. And they knew why it was there. And they couldn't do anything about it. And it was the worst part.

Sabo hesitated for another minute or two, exchanging a glance with Ace and observing their baby brother turn back to the TV screen and his game, before excusing himself to go change his pants. Ace knew they'd made a silent agreement to talk about what happened later. And he also knew Sabo wasn't the only one who would have to talk. Hell, knowing the blond and how many years he managed to hide his family problems from him and Luffy, Ace was already expecting to be the only one talking. At least he had time to prepare himself, since none of them was planning to mention the matter anywhere close to Luffy again for some time.

"Ne, Ace..."

Damn Luffy and his sensitive moments.

* * *

Later that day – practically early morning of the next –, Ace was on the living room very awake. If anyone asked, he was ready to throw the blame on his narcolepsy. It wouldn't be the first time the disease kept him awake all night long, even if he had no idea of what's the logic behind that. If anyone stopped to really look at him and the state he was in, they would noticed that he was trying to force himself to stay awake. Not exactly successfully, since he'd already fallen asleep more than a few time through the night. But he had to speak with Sabo and he wanted to do it as soon as possible.

The problem, of course, was that Ace had no idea his brother stayed out until that late.

This made sense, though. Thinking back at all the times Sabo had came up with some night-time compromise, Ace couldn't remember just one time his brother had got home while he was awake. Not that it was really hard, but by what he remembered of Luffy and Gramps saying about it, they probably also couldn't remember. It had been already three years since Sabo moved out of his parents' place to live with them and none of them knew where he went or when he came back home. And now they discovered an injury he was trying to hide. Not to talk about the mysterious girl friend Sabo refused to talk about. Or any of the study groups, parties or jobs he went during nighttime and was very evasive or redundant while talking about.

Now he was feeling stupid for never noticing anything wrong before.

Since sitting alone on the living room wasn't doing any good for his self-mental beating or his self-imposed awaken state, the teen decided to turn on the television. It didn't really help. Apparently, there wasn't one good show at that time and he had to resign himself with just keep zapping through all the channels. Well, this or watch some trashy horror movie or some porn or some junction of both. Considering why he was there in the first place, none of these options seemed like a good idea. But just keep repetitively changing channels wasn't really helping either.

He was about to give up on watching television and try to play or go get something to eat (getting something to eat was always a good idea, even if they still needed a new stove) when an image flashed through the channels he wasn't really paying attention to. Certain that it looked just like a certain thief and with curiosity picking up, the teenager went back to the channel he saw it. Well, the man on screen certainly looked a lot like the Phoenix. Or, at least, a low budget version of him. The mask managed to be even more ridiculous than the original, the blue of the jacket was almost purple, there wasn't anything resembling the gold feathers, the tattoo was wrong shaped and not as bright, and the actor was a lot brawnier. Ace supposed that's the better they could do with the few pictures people have managed to take from him, but it still was so different and wrong from the man he met.

Nevertheless, he still decided to watch the movie, or he supposed it was something like that. The part he turned in was nothing special. The 'Phoenix' was invading some rich place to steal something. The 'Phoenix' went through some terribly made with crappy special effects traps and security system – also, the kind of stuff Gramps would arrest the owner of the place for having there in the first place. Rather quickly, there was the door leading to the 'thief's' target. Inside the room was... a girl... A very naked and very (not naturally) developed girl... And then they...

Ooooooookay.

Ace knew people had these kinds of fantasies with the masked members of society, but watching it was something completely different than just knowing. Especially if he (kinda) met the guy before. It was weird. Very weird. The fact that he'd been checking the guy's abs at the moment only made everything a lot weirder. And awkward. God, the guy on the movie was _big_. Ace wanted to restart beating himself mentally for the thoughts concerning the real Phoenix he had because of that.

"I thought we had agreed not to watch this kind of stuff when Luffy's at home" Ace jumped in place with when he suddenly heard the amused voice behind him. Of course the son of a bitch would get home at the worst time possible. "Was that supposed to be the Phoenix?" Oh, yeah, there was that too. Even without looking at him, Ace could imagine very well the 'what the actual fuck' kind of look on the blond's face.

"I think so..." the best strategy right now was probably to act like there was nothing wrong. It was hard, when the actress left out a particularly loud moan right at that moment. "I wasn't really watching it" he decided to add fast, turning off the television before things got more intense between the 'Phoenix' and the rich girl. They still hadn't introduced the thief's powers on the plot and Ace didn't doubt things could get a lot more intense and interesting if and when they did it. But anyway, he still had things to talk with his brother.

"I'll talk if you tell me what happened first."

For the first minutes, taken by surprised, Ace was surprised by the statement, without completely understanding it. When he finally grasped the full meaning of what his brother said, he couldn't really say if he loved or hated how much Sabo knew him. He decided it was good, for now, since they could go direct to what was important. But, still, Ace didn't want to talk about his experience meeting the Phoenix, or whatever was that that happened on the park. He was starting to get the impression it wasn't just to avoid the scolding. There was something else he couldn't explain... Not to say he also doubted his brother's excuse would be completely true.

"Luffy asked why we were lying to each other," he said, trying to convince himself more than the blond.

"..." They stayed in silence for some minutes. Observing his brother's face, Ace noticed he was thinking hard about something. Something Ace was sure the other was going to tell him when he was ready, but he definitively didn't have the patience to wait until then. "Are you going after the Phoenix? Do you decide to become a hero after all?"

Okay. _This_ the powered teen wasn't expecting at all. Sabo knew very well the answer to that question, even having never got into this type of discussion with him or Luffy.

"And run around the city wearing a mask and tight pants? No thanks." Ace tried to joke, but for once, Sabo didn't look amused.

"But are you planning to go after the Phoenix or not?"

"I don't know, maybe"

"Don't do it."

Wait, what?

"Why not?"

He watched Sabo sighing and rubbing his eyes and started to grow irritated. He knew that behaviour. It was Sabo's behaviour for when he thought Luffy were being stupid and incredibly careless for not knowing something basic.

"Have you ever heard the rumours?" Sabo asked before Ace could open his complain "About the Phoenix."

"Something about the guy being related to some old villain?" the blond was lucky Ace was feeling curious enough to cooperate. Not happy. Exactly the opposite and making sure to show it. After years of brotherhood, Sabo's moments of being a know-it-all seemed to always be getting worse with time. "What about it?"

"Not some old villain. Whitebeard." Oh. So _that's_ from where Ace recognized the mark on the thief's chest. And that's why Gramps was freaking out so much about him running after the guy, even saying he would never take him to his job again (not that Ace was complaining about that). "Ace, whatever happened..."

"You think it was a trap."

"I think it _is_ a trap." Sabo corrected him.

"So, you want me to simply forget what happened?"

"I want you to not run after a guy, who probably has reasons to hurt, you alone in the middle of the night." Wait. WHAT? How could Sabo possibly know about that? "I asked Gramps." Of course. "Now, Ace. Seriously, promise me you're not going after the Phoenix unless you decide to run around wearing a mask and tight pants."

Ace couldn't help but laugh at how serious Sabo looked when he said this last part.

"Fine! But you have to promise not to hide any other injuries from us. AND you have to promise to get home at a reasonable time."

"Sure, mommy. Are you also going to remind me to brush my teeth and wash behind the ears?" Sabo said, rolling his eyes with a shade of an amused smile on his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe, hope you liked it~


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shows from behind a wall, looking around nervously* Soooo... I was going to say I haven't updated earlier because real life happened, but then I noticed it took me over 3 months to write the chapter and yeeeeeeaah *hides from the rain of tomatoes behind the wall*
> 
> I'm soooorry ;-; but real life indeed happened. I went to Disney World, the trip messed up with all my college work, I wanted to sit and cry because of it and my WebDesign professor was a huge bitch 8D Also, Homestuck's gigahiatus ended and the Age of Ultron's trailer was released and all the information about Marvel's movies's phase three. My attention went to other fandoms for some time. It just happened enough time after the last chapter for me to have written something earlier :x
> 
> But now... I honestly should've be doing stuff for college instead of writing fanfics. OH WELL, how needs sleep, right?
> 
> Aaaand, another thing o-o In case anyone is confused about ages and stuff because I'm calling Ace a teen: Ace and Sabo are 18 and Luffy's 15, you can safely used them as base to calculate the rest of the characters's ages :v
> 
> *mumbling* There was something else... OH YEAH! There might be a little OoCness here, maybe, but mostly because of plot and AU shenanigans. And there might be some spelling and grammar problems because I'm not a native English speaker, and usually I ask for a friend who's also not a native English speaker (and that doesn't read nor watch OP) to proofread for me and this time I hadn't sent the chapter to him before posting it :x I'm also posting the story on Fanfiction and I'm seeing how the beta system there works o-o I don't even know yet if there is a beta system on ao3 too, but if anyone wants to volunteer as a beta for the story anyway, I'd appreciated it :v Also, I kinda of make the costumes as I go and I'm bad at describing things physically, so some of them might be kinda bad really xP
> 
> NOW TO THE CHAPTER BECAUSE THIS IS ALREADY TOO LONG!
> 
> Disclaimer: Last time I checked I wasn't a Japanese man named Oda, so, nope, One piece doesn't belong to me.

"Careful with that, you dipshits!"

"Yeah, and you're welcome for the help! Don't even care to ask next time."

"Come on, Ace, he's just stressed because of the opening."

Okay, Ace knew it. He was thinking that 'stressed' was actually an understatement. Sanji was downright freaking out. The amount of cigars the guy had been smoking was gigantic and Ace was actually pretty surprised about how much willpower his friend had to not start with Smoker's habit of smoking two cigars at the same time yet. Or maybe even more. Fuck, even Zeff, Sanji's adoptive father, was smoking like a chimney and that meant _a lot_.

The single reason for that was the fact that the Baratie gained a spot at All Blue Street. Of course, Sanji was ecstasy with the news at the time they had got them. It was his and Zeff's dream to reach the All Blue, even if with only a small branch on the street. It was a big party their group of friends had thrown to celebrate the occasion. After a series of accidents involving Luffy trying to be a waiter - or people trying to make he even try to do the work right - and they had to really move the restaurant to the new address, the craziness began. One month of pure madness until they got to the point even Zoro decided to come back from his training camp earlier to help.

It was a good reminder to why Luffy mustn't get any summer jobs.

"Ace-bro, we need your SUPER HELP here!" Franky's voice brought him back to reality.

"Coming!" Ace responded, _carefully_ leaving the very heavy box of plates and bowls on one of the tables near the kitchen. Since the restaurant was almost finished, today they only needed to finish transporting some stuff they'd need – and decoration Ace didn't really find all that necessary, but apparently the ambient could influence on the taste or something like that. Obviously Ace was put to carry a lot of the stuff they couldn't let Luffy carry, aka the very fragile stuff. Apparently, they also didn't have much confidence on Ace to do that, but there was only so much Sabo and Zoro could carry on their own. And none of the cooks could help in order to prevent something from happening to their hands.

He wasn't going to complain about it, though. They were all there helping a friend in need. Also, just one look at Sanji's state was enough to make even Luffy to stop whining about the delayed lunchtime. Well, Sanji's state and a huge chest full of food everybody agreed could be replaced in time to the opening night, but everybody agreed it was better to believe it was for his friend. Deep inside, Ace really wanted to complain about how they didn't have more food on the chest so he could try to get some too. And about the delayed lunchtime, to be completely honest. He was starving.

Fortunately, Zeff decided they all should stop and eat something. It would be a shame for all of the Baratie cooks if they didn't give any food for the very people who were helping them. Or something like that. Ace's mind stopped listening when food was mentioned and was completely focused at filling his stomach. He didn't even mind when the older man gave him some money and send him and Luffy to go grab something on one of the other restaurants on the street, because 'they still didn't have the structure to feed your two bottomless pits'. Probably it also had something to do with Luffy breaking the fridge and nobody wanting to risk anything else getting broken.

Anyway, the only place the chef told them not to go was the restaurant across the street. Obviously, Luffy ran direct in its direction, calling for meat, since it was the closest one.

Taking a look at the place, Ace understood right way why everybody was so stressed out at the Baratie: they were right across the Moby Dick. It was basically the most well-known and well-rated restaurant in the city, owned by no other than Edward Newgate. Ace could not know much about the guy, but he knew that Newgate was one of the richest people in town and one of the biggest philanthropists out there. He didn't know exactly what Newgate had done to be considered it, just that the guy owned some orphanages and schools and had a shitload of sons and was all about family (going by what the media says). Oh, he was also a friend or acquaintance or something of Garp, and Ace had no idea if he should respect or fear the guy for this. He definitively respected the guy because of the Moby Dick, though.

From time to time, the restaurant used to open the door to literally anyone with prices no more expensive than 40 or 50 bellies, and everything always very tasty. Of course, during their childhood, Ace and his brothers enjoyed the place a lot. The fact that they were kids who looked like they lived on the streets made they got a discount to pay even less or even made they get free food sometimes, to make things a lot better. They stopped going there after Luffy met Sanji, though. The food on the Baratie was tastier and they would certainly always meet at least one of their friends there.

Ace wondered if the old childhood memories could be why Zeff didn't want the brothers to go to the Moby Dick. Maybe he was afraid of them becoming costumers there again or something. It didn't really make any sense and sounded completely unlike Zeff, but there wasn't really any other explanation Ace could think of. Seriously, he understood why the old man and Sanji were so stressed with having to directly compete with the Moby Dick right at their doorstep, but, honestly, sending a hungry Luffy to an unaccustomed chef seemed like a great way to break their business.

"Eeeeh, what do you mean it's closed?"

Well, that's one less problem to worry about at the moment. But Ace should probably go save the poor worker from his hungry brother.

"This means no food for you, brat. Now, screw!"

Or maybe he should go kick some poor worker's ass.

"Hey! Why can't my brother eat here?" Sure, he had just heard Luffy saying the restaurant was closed, but it wouldn't be the first time someone had given that excuse to not let them in. Ace wasn't expecting it from the Moby Dick staff, but it seemed like things changed since last time they went there.

The... worker – Ace wasn't so sure he was a worker after looking at him. Damn, Ace wasn't even sure if he really was a 'he', with that geisha outfit. Anyway, the person rolled his – he decided to keep with the masculine for the moment – eyes and pointed to the door with his head. And there it was: a very visible and hard to miss sign with 'CLOSED' written on it. Looking through the windows, it was also pretty obvious how there hadn't been any costumers in the place for quite some time now.

"Ne, Ace! It's a restaurant and the lady is saying I can't get meat!"

They seriously needed to do something about Luffy's lack of common sense.

The stranger raised an eyebrow at the older brother, silent asking him about what and why the younger was complaining. Before starting to growl in annoyance because of Luffy's demands of meat. The stranger looked ready to shoot Luffy in the face, and the fact that Ace could actually see a gun hidden in his clothes made the older teen very sure that this was a very real possibility.

"Look here, kid, you better get going before I decide to make a barbecue with your-"

"Okay, I'm sorry about him. He hit his head _a lot_ when we were kids" Ace apologised, bowing deeply, after deciding to step in before things got bad. He was still annoyed by the situation, but now because of his brother. And the last thing they needed was to some random person on the street to learn about the meat-lover's powers. That was why Zeff didn't want them to come to this place: to avoid this talk from happening. "Shut up, Luffy!" the freckled brother hit his brother's head and making him bow down too, half proving his point, half really trying to make Luffy stop complaining about how hungry he was. "Now apologise for being rude."

"Eh, but, Ace, I'm not being rude! I just want meat!" and another punch on the younger's head. "What was that for?"

"Wait, are your names Ace and Luffy?" the stranger asked, now looking at them with what Ace supposed was a curious look on his face "Perhaps are you two Garp's..." he never managed to finish the question, since at the same time someone called for 'Izo' from the back of the restaurant. Nor he needed to finish the question for Ace to understand what he wanted to know. The question now was who was the stranger to be able to recognize them by their first names. If Gramps was friends with the owner of restaurant, he'd understand Newgate knowing their names, but he didn't expect for the man's employees to know this too. Nor for them to be able to make a connection so easily "Never mind that, I have to go now. If you understand the situation, leave now please."

* * *

The rest of the day passed without any incident. Or without any incident worth of being mentioned. They managed to finish most of the things on the restaurant and to relieve most of the stress out of the chefs. Afternoon came and both Zeff and Sanji insisted on making up for the lunch the brothers had to eat out with dinner. It actually went more like 'hey, shitheads, the old geezer and I are finishing your dinner in 30 minutes', but what counted was the feeling, and neither brother would pass the opportunity to get free food. Including Sabo, who had also stuck around to grab something for him, even if he had to leave earlier because of plans with the girlfriend.

Yes, after much insisting from Ace's part – and Luffy and most of their friends also joining in –, Sabo finally admitted the truth about his night escapades: he was dating someone! According to the blond, her name was Koala, they met by coincidence in one of his part time jobs and his brothers hadn't met her yet because she was very shy and had an overprotective family. Or overprotective friends. The raven-haired didn't really understand this part, but by now he was satisfied with the information he'd got.

Since Luffy decided to stay at Sanji's place for breakfast, lunch and probably another dinner as well, leaving Ace to go home alone. It wasn't the first time this happened and definitively wouldn't be the last. While Ace didn't mind the walking part that much – it was good to just thing about any random thing without having to worry about having to stop Luffy from doing anything stupid at any moment –, the getting home to an empty house part wasn't all that exciting. That's why he decided to take the long way home and go through a park that was practically a small forest in the middle of the city and that remembered him of his early childhood. It wasn't like he couldn't defend himself if someone tried to hide on the trees and ambush him.

* * *

It was bad.

Everything about that situation was bad. And he made more than one mental note to prepare a talk about _getting your information right_ later. Even if he could understand the other's feelings, that little tiny bit of miscommunication was enough to turn an easy job into one of his worst nights in years, just a week or so too late to take the first place. He should've listened to Pops and accepted one of his sibling's help. Not that realizing it would make the situation he was currently in any better.

Deciding against thinking about what he should've done differently and in favour of thinking about what to do now, he adjusted the weight of the bag he was carrying on his shoulder in order to make his flight smoother. If it weren't for the damn thing, he would be able to fight no problem and wouldn't have to run. Too bad the damn thing was too important for him to just drop it somewhere and go take those _heroes_ head on. Luckily, he was approaching an area with trees where he could hide.

"Oooh~ I think I found a little bird~" As soon as he heard that annoying singing voice, he was hit by a light beam on the shoulder. Thanks to the extra weight, he ended up hitting the ground before his flames could react to the wound. "Is the little bird feeling tired already?" He knew better than falling for the other's taunt, focusing on finding a scape route.

He had landed at the park he was going to, but at an open area. The trees weren't that far, but he knew better than to try to outrun his pursuer. He would definitively stand a chance in a fight, but, with his load, it would be too risk. Honestly, he didn't even know what he had stolen, he was only doing a favour to a friend, and this only made things more complicated.

"Ice Age!"

He made a promise to never mix his job with his personal life again. Or no more than necessary.

* * *

Ace stopped walking and listened. He thought he had just heard a 'thump' from behind the trees, and now he was pretty sure he just heard a lot of crashing from the same direction. Being a smart guy and related to the chief of police, he knew he should stay away and contact the authorities about that. Being the cocky curious rebel he also was, he did the exact opposite and went to check what was going on.

He got mixed feelings about that idea when he'd got to the place and had seen what was happening: a real and legit fight between super powered people. No matter what his opinions about the whole 'heroes vs. villains' thing were, it was still something totally awesome to watch. The only reason he hadn't taken any pictures nor was filming it, was because the villain in question was no other than the Phoenix. He remembered the promise he had made to Sabo in the beginning of the month and part of his mind was feeling a little guilt for being there.

But it was a _freaking fight between super powered people._ His brother surely could forgive him for wanting to watch that. Maybe if he could just pay attention to the heroes instead of to the villain in question...

Looking to the superhero he looked at was probably one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

Now, if it were someone younger and prettier – even with the orange glasses hiding the hero's face, Ace knew he was far from pretty –, he wouldn't have any problem with the bright striped yellow and extremely tight suit that (unfortunately) left nothing much for the imagination. The monkey-like symbol in the middle of his chest could even be considered kinda cute. Just not in someone his age. Because there was no way that Kizaru guy was younger than 50-something. At least he had some orange short shorts making the costume _a little bit more_ family-friendly, and the Mariejois super group special cape covering the back area. According to what he'd heard from Garp, Ace guessed the hero dressed like that either to taunt his opponents or just cause he was too lazy to change to a uniform more suitable for his age.

Luckily it was hard to see the man, since he kept moving really while fighting the Phoenix.

Okay, maybe not so luckily, because not being able to see the hero meant he was actually just looking at the Phoenix. Or, at the Phoenix's blue flames. He couldn't really see much of the fighters other than some rays of light and the blue flames shocking one against the other, unless some side decided to prepare some attack more elaborated. It was still amazing to watch, thought. The only, and big, problem was that Ace was feeling the same instinct to draw his own flames closer to the blue ones that he felt during the fish incident, and Ace was really used to act based on instincts.

The freckled teen unconsciously started raising his body temperature and took one small step closer to the cleaning where the fight was happening. A movement on the side, however, made Ace realize what he was doing, and he managed to hide behind a tree before his flames could come out and the fighters could notice him. He also left a curse escape under his breath, partly because he'd forgotten about the second hero on the scene, partly because he almost revealed his powers and partly because now he was hiding like he did something wrong.

Angry with himself, Ace turned to the other hero on the scene, fully showing himself. He did not know nor care if the two fighting also noticed him or not. He was just too surprised with the fact that he just bumped into someone the moment he stepped away from the tree.

Looking up to the person's face the first thing he shouldn't really be all that surprised that it was Aokiji's face. Well, what he could see of Aokiji's face behind that sleeping mask-like mask the man wore. Ace was glad just by the fact that Aokiji was also wearing actual pants over his blue spandex hero costume. The costume didn't look all that different from Kizaru, except for the fact that his had an image of a pheasant on the chest instead of a monkey, and wasn't striped. The pants were white social pants. How the hero managed to fight crime – or just move around – with them on was a question with mysterious answers to the freckled teen. He guessed it matched with the cape or whatever since both items were white.

"Oh, my. Aren't you one of Garp-san's grandsons?" the hero asked, not looking surprised at all. He did make Ace wonder how so many people he'd never met (or he thinks he'd never met) before knew about his connection with Gramps. He guessed it was still better than people knowing about his biological father. "Shouldn't kids like you be at home already?" the older man continued, bringing Ace back from his thoughts.

"I'm not a kid!" Ace replied automatically in a way he wasn't going to admit sounded a little childish.

"Child or not, anybody in the area could be a potential threat." A voice coming from behind Ace said, making the teen flinch. When a hand held his shoulder, taking away any opportunity Ace could have to run, he felt every single muscle of his body tensing up and every self-preservation instinct people said he didn't have kicking in to _not let that man know he had powers_.

The fire user barely heard some other question directed to him before Aokiji replied something and the two older men started to discuss. The teen didn't need to pay attention to know about what they were talking about, but stayed quiet anyway. As much as he hated how he needed Aokiji to defend him in that situation, he could feel a little imaginary Sabo kicking his head and telling him to keep his mouth shut in order to not make things worse. And that hand on his shoulder wasn't helping in anything to make him relax.

Ace did look behind him, however. Not that he needed to do so to know who the newcomer was, but because he hated how much weakness he was showing at the moment and that was a way to prove he wasn't afraid – even if deep inside he was actually feeling a little terrified. As the teen expected, there was Akainu, glaring at him even with that cap/mask that covered the older man's eyes. The rest of his uniform seemed to follow a similar pattern of the other two heroes, being crimson red with the image of a dog on the chest and the white cape, and with pants of the same color like Aokiji's. The biggest difference being on how Akainu's uniform showed the man's neck and even part of a tattoo, what was surprising considering how most of the masked people tried to hide these stuff that could be used to find their real identities – not that Ace really believed anyone would be stupid enough to try to track the man's identity and special ones and try to do something against them. The hero was scarier and far more dangerous for his enemies than a lot of villains out there.

Now, truth be told, that was the first time Ace ever got in direct contact with Akainu, since usually Gramps tried to keep him and Luffy as far away from the man as possible. That would've been considered a strange behaviour, taking in account how Garp was always trying to turn his grandsons into heroes and introducing them to real heroes whenever he got the opportunity to 'inspire them', but Akainu seemed to hate the brothers. And, if the hand still holding Ace in place and the tone he was using while discussing with Aokiji were any indicators, he seemed to be looking forward a reason to get to the two boys for a long time already. For apparently no reason.

Except that Ace knew there was a possible reason for that. And that possibility honestly scared the crap out of him.

Luckily the attention of the two men discussing was soon bought back to the two fighters. Relaxing a little when the hold on his shoulder loosened a bit, Ace managed to make sense of a comment about escaping little birds coming from Kizaru and, when the teen turned to look, he realized that, indeed, the Phoenix had somehow managed to escape. He also realized that Akainu and Aokiji hadn't given any fucks about the fact that he was silent the whole time they were discussing about his guilt (or lack of it), and this pissed the younger male to no end. But, again, the little imaginary Sabo on his head smacked him so he would just stay quiet and let the heroes forget about him and leave after the thief.

That plan actually worked better than expected. After a little explanation –demanded by Akainu – of how he was just going home when he heard the fight, the trio didn't have any real reason to waste more time with the teen and risk letting the supervillain escape for real. Not that the crimson wearing man liked that; in fact, if looks could kill, Ace wouldn't have any chance against the one sent in his direction. Ace responded with a glare of his own, and considered they were even for now.

Ace waited a little for the heroes to disappear from his sight, before walking a way he was sure none of the three had gone. At the time he wasn't really caring at all if it was the right way or not, he just wanted to not have to interact with any other superperson. Also, Akainu really managed to hurt his shoulder – the teen was pretty sure he'd got a bruise – and, as hypocritical as it sounded, Ace didn't want to have to deal with Sabo's worries when he got home. If his brother was already home by the time he'd got there. Anyway, he also didn't want to deal with Gramps, who he also wasn't sure if would or not be at home. Based on how he had just seen the Phoenix, the teen guessed he wouldn't. Now that he stopped to think, that's why he decided to took the long way in the first place: to delay the moment he'd get to an empty house (that still didn't seem very appealing for him).

He hadn't walked much far and hadn't had any time to think about what he could do now, before something hit his head. He thought he heard someone above him murmuring something on the lines of 'dammit', but he was too busy mentally cursing whatever hit him like it was the cause of all the bad things on his life.

"What the-" he started, glaring behind him, but was soon interrupted by a hand covering his mouth and a body pushing him against a tree. Oh, and the other person was also holding him in place by the same shoulder Akainu did.

"Quiet, yoi" the person practically hissed, and Ace was divided at hissing back (but in pain) or simply screaming at the top of his lungs just because. He didn't do any of that, though, too surprised with the stranger's identity. Or... not exactly 'identity' per say, but... well... It was the Phoenix. Ace deduced whatever hit him was probably the bag with... whatever goods the thief had stolen early that night.

Now, the older man probably was just worried the heroes would hear Ace speaking and that was why he decided to pin the boy against a tree And he was way too close just because that was a better way to hide in case the heroes did hear something anyway and decided to go back there. And Ace actually knew and understood that with no problems, but his mind insisted into going back to a certain movie he saw on TV some time before. A very mature movie, without much plot and involving a certain thief.

He wasn't blushing. Nope. No way that was happening.

"What are you thinking, yoi?" the man asked, making Ace's face really look like a red velvet cupcake. Not that he sounded like a perverted of anything, the tone was actually a little too calm and bored. But he wasn't expecting the Phoenix to notice anything was strange so easily.

With a sigh, the thief released him and turned back to take the bag with his spoils. As Ace had though, it really looked like the man had let it fall right into Ace's head by accident. The teen was honestly not very impressed by that. Anyone would expect that such a high-profile thief would've taken more care about the goods he'd stolen. Having first handed experienced the weight of the package, the teen guessed it was just too heavy to hide it for a long time on the top of a tree.

Massaging his right shoulder, the teen approached the man, slowly and curious.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Nothing, yoi." Yeah, Ace wasn't really expecting an answer.

"It didn't feel like 'nothing'," he grumbled anyway, now massaging the area of the head were he was hit. It was still hurting, but after being hit on the head by so many Fists of Love, Ace wasn't really worried about it being anything serious.

The Phoenix on the other hand, stopped on his tracks and looked at Ace. After some moments of silence, he walked at the teen's direction, stopping direct in front of him. Ace was obviously surprised about that, but before he could even start to form a question, the thief put a finger in front of his face and spoke:

"How many fingers are you seeing?" the masked man asked.

"What?" was the most intelligent reply Ace was able to formulate.

"Lower" the Phoenix demanded, before repeating his question: "How many fingers are you seeing, yoi?"

"One?" Ace was honestly confused about what in the hell and the seven seas was going on there, but answered barely loud enough for them to hear. The older one seemed satisfied with it and talked again:

"Follow it, yoi" he said before moving the finger to one side to another.

Wait... He wasn't...?

Okay. This was definitively _not_ what the freckled male was expecting at all. As far as Ace's knowledge on medicine went, it seemed like the Phoenix – one of the most known and, supposedly, one of the most dangerous villains in the city – was checking if Ace had a concussion or something like this. If the whole weren't so surreal, Ace would've probably messed around with the thief to try to make him feel guilty and tell Ace what was on the bag – not that Ace believed it would actually work. After the test with the finger, the Phoenix started asking some simple questions that wouldn't reveal anything personal about any of them. Obviously, the older man didn't even consider the possibility of testing Ace's sensibility to light.

"You look fine, yoi." The supervillain said after the last question, turning around to leave again.

"I am." Ace managed to reply, still trying to make sense of the situation. First a hero made it pretty clearly that he wanted Ace dead, and then a villain was worried and tried to make sure he was all right. And now said villain was just walking away "Wait!" Ace called without really thinking about it. Not even the imaginary little Sabo pulling the raven hair was enough to stop him. However, being pinned against another tree with a hand over his mouth, again, made Ace reconsider his decision.

"Not so loud, yoi!" the Phoenix angrily whispered on his ear, a lot tenser than Ace thought he was a second before. If Ace could think, it'd make sense for the thief to be nervous; they were standing at the same place for far too long already. But the teen soon discovered it was really hard to think straight with another body pressed against his own, the feeling of a stubble brushing against his skin and the other's breath on his ear. And his hormonally influenced imagination really wasn't helping.

Fortunately – or unfortunately – the Phoenix seemed to notice what was going on and moved away before the situation started to get too hard for Ace. The thief was still too close, however, and even with the mask on, Ace could feel the intensity of the older man's stare. The fire user felt like he wouldn't be able to make his face so red nor so hot as he was feeling it even if he used his powers to the fullest. He was also really very worried about was going to happen. It wasn't like the Phoenix really just has sex with people he had found at random during his thefts like in the porn movie, right? What Ace would do if the answer were 'yes'? And what would he do if Ace tried to refuse?

After a minute that felt like an eternity, the Phoenix simply turned his back to the teen, picked his bag and walked away.

Then Ace realized he had probably just broken his promise with Sabo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was honestly thinking about ending the chapter when Akainu showed up, but naaaah. I wouldn't do it with you guys. I should've made Ace's narcolepsy kicked in the end, though :v
> 
> Anyway, the Phoenix's and Kizaru's fight and Akainu's and Aokiji's discussion. They aren't there. I know. Why? Well, first of all, I don't have much confidence writing fighting scenes nor the admirals yet (I'll work on it), and second, because of spoilers. I was thinking about what they'd be saying to one another and, yeah, spoilers... I WILL make a special omake chapter or something with these scenes included in the future. Probably.
> 
> And just one last thing, guys. I don't know when the next chapter will come out. I had to change a lot of my initial plans for the story while I was writing this chapter (the ending I needed wouldn't make any sense), so I still have to see how stuff will go from this point on. Also, I have two one shot ideas I've been wanting to work on for some time now, so I might get to those first. Anyway, because of college, I'll probably only be able to really focus on writing next month. But I'll make the possible to not take another three months before the next chapter!


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